Monday, December 29, 2008

This month in my area the sun has been practically non-existant. As of Saturday, we'd had less than eight hours of sunshine for the entire month of December. That puts us on track for the cloudiest month ever around here. So, when the sun peeked out this afternoon, I decided I had to take advantage of it. Although I have a heap of dirty laundry that needs tending, I hopped in my Jeep and took off for a short road trip. I ended up at my favorite beach, about a half-hour drive away. The temperature reading was 40 degrees F, but the wind was gusting up to 40 MPH, so it was bone chilling cold outside. I did manage to snap a couple of pictures to share.

This is the Grand Haven pier and light house. There were some people out on the pier today, but the wind was cutting through my wool coat, so I decided not to venture any closer.

This is a view of Lake Michigan. If you look closely, you can see the water behind the snowbank. I would guess that about a week ago, you would not have been able to see the sand at all. We had a thaw over the weekend that melted most of the 17"of snow that they had on Christmas Day.

Here is an action shot of my hat as it was blown off my head. (It's the black blob at upper left of the pic.) The wind carried it quite a ways, and I thought it was long gone. I had no intention of being the silly fat lady running after her hat on a windy winter day. This photo was taken at Grand Haven State Park. The yellow lines on the road are actually campsites. They are really close together and the park is usually full during camping season. The campground is closed for the winter.

See that dark spot on the sand? That is my hat. It came to a temporary stop just to tease me. I did actually end up getting my hat back when it got blown up against one of the electric boxes. But my hair was a complete disaster by then. Oh well. On the bright side, I spotted this on my trip back towards home.

Can you believe that?! Naturally I stopped and filled up. I would have thought I would never see gas priced that low again. It was $1.56 a gallon back at home. Today was a twofer! Sunshine and low gas prices. Woohoo!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Gosh, I just cannot believe how fast this month has flown past. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was very enjoyable. I have been busy re-organizing my sewing room for the past few weeks. I still have a little work to do before I am ready to get back to my quilts. In the mean time, I found this on another blog, and thought I would give it a go. Those Items that I have done will be highlighted in blue.

1. Started my own blog2. Slept under the stars3. Played in a band4. Visited Hawaii5. Watched a meteor shower6. Given more than I can afford to charity7. Been to Disneyland/world8. Climbed a mountain9. Held a praying mantis10. Sung a solo11. Bungee jumped12. Visited Paris13. Watched lightning at sea14. Taught myself an art from scratch15. Adopted a child16. Had food poisoning-it's really bad when you don't know which end to point towards the toilet17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty18. Grown my own vegetables19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France20. Slept on an overnight train21. Had a pillow fight22. Hitchhiked23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill24. Built a snow fort25. Held a lamb26. Gone skinny dipping27. Run a Marathon28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice29. Seen a total eclipse-have seen an eclipse, but not sure if it was a total eclipse30. Watched a sunrise or sunset -both!31. Hit a home run32. Been on a cruise33. Seen Niagara Falls in person34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors35. Seen an Amish community36. Taught myself a new language-took a foreign language for 3 years in school, but notself-taught37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied39. Gone rock climbing40. Seen Michelangelo’s David41. Sung karaoke42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant44. Visited Africa45. Walked on a beach by moonlight46. Been transported in an ambulance47. Had my portrait painted-I did have a characature done once48. Gone deep sea fishing-I went fishing in the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii; I think that would count49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling52. Kissed in the rain53. Played in the mud54. Gone to a drive-in theater55. Been in a movie- but it was one we made for a school project56. Visited the Great Wall of China57. Started a business58. Taken a martial arts class59. Visited Russia60. Served at a soup kitchen61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies-bought quite a few, does that count?62. Gone whale watching63. Got flowers for no reason64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma65. Gone sky diving66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp67. Bounced a check- but it was not intentional68. Flown in a helicopter69. Saved a favorite childhood toy70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial71. Eaten caviar72. Pieced a quilt73. Stood in Times Square74. Toured the Everglades75. Been fired from a job76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London77. Broken a bone78. Been on a speeding motorcycle79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person80. Published a book81. Visited Brazil82. Bought a brand new car83. Walked in Jerusalem84. Had my picture in the newspaper85. Read the entire Bible86. Visited the White House87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating88. Had chickenpox89. Saved someone’s life90. Sat on a jury91. Met someone famous92. Joined a book club93. Lost a loved one94. Had a baby95. Seen the Alamo in person96. Swam in the Lake Michigan97. Been involved in a lawsuit98. Owned a cell phone99. Been stung by a bee100. Ridden an elephant

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Last night I was blessed with the arrival of my very first grandchild!!!! Jayda Christine is beautiful and I am thrilled. Congratulations Kyle and Crystal. I am overjoyed. Such a beautiful family.

Here I am holding her for the very first time.

My days have been otherwise filled with preparations for Christmas. My house is partially decorated. The tree is up, but absolutely bare at this point. Shopping has begun, but I am a long ways from finished.

Hubby has been on his annual hunting trip for a week now. For those who don't know me personally, that means I have been sleep deprived for seven nights. So I am really dragging. Friday can't come soon enough for me. Hurry home, honey!

I decided on Saturday to redo my sewing room. It is in a complete shambles right now. What was I thinking?! My current piecing project is not turning out to my liking, and I think I took out my frustration on my sewing room. I have a lot of work to do before I can get back to sewing.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I got sidetracked a bit today. My computer anti-virus software did a scan today and found a Trojan horse. I have no idea where I got it from, but I am determined not to spread it. So, I dropped everything to take care of that problem. The infected file is gone and the problem is solved. Here's the current view of my wall.

It is pretty quiet in my sewing room. But sounds from the rest of the house are filtering in. My dog, Sadie is snoring; asleep in the doorway. And my son and a couple of his friends are talking and laughing upstairs. I sure hope they don't start looking for food. I really need to take a trip to the grocery store. But that will have to wait until tomorrow. This is my day. And now, back to sewing.

I'm back with some more pics and today's game plan. It is cold here in Michigan, and we are getting a light snowfall. In fact, I believe snow is in the forecast for the entire week. Bummer. I am really much more of a summer type of person.

I promised in the last post to share the completed top from yesterday.What do you think? I am really happy with it. If you look closely, you will notice that I am previewing my options for the binding. On the left is my original intention- the yellow; and on the right is the checkerboard print. I think I will stick with the yellow.

Also, I have a finish to report! I finally got the baby quilt done. I got the binding all stitched down and it is ready to go. :D Bring on the grand baby!!! I'm ready now.

So, what's on the agenda for today? This for starters. The pieces are all cut and ready to go. Hopefully I won't feel the need to deviate from the design on this one.

And when I feel the need to relax with my feet up, I will work on finishing up this quilt. I have the binding about halfway stitched down and I have decided that I will not go to sleep tonight before it is done. I think I started this one back in 2000, so it is time to finish it.

I feel the need to apologize for the lack of photos yesterday. I got so caught up in getting something done that I forgot to come back and add some in. So, I will get us caught up as far as I can. I need some better lighting conditions before I can take photos of the most complete progress.

About the swap blocks I am working with this weekend. I used to participate with a couple of MSN quilting groups. And I did quite a few block swaps with my on-line friends. However, I made very few quilts from the blocks I swapped. So I have blocks for at least seven quilts sitting around my sewing space. And I have at least three quilt tops made up of swap blocks that need to be finished. Mind you, I am just counting what I can think of from memory; there could very likely be more. Anyways, I came to the realization that I needed to get off-line and into my sewing room to finish some quilts.

These are the blocks I have chosen to work with this weekend.

I played around on EQ and came settled on a couple setting ideas for my blocks and this is what I decided on.

This is for the group of blocks on the left of the block photo I showed above. The greyish looking border is supposed to be a black/white check, but it is not reading as such in the picture.

And this is for the other group of blocks I have in the first photo.

Of course, even the best of plans sometimes need to be tweaked. And that is exactly what I have to do with my first quilt top. Once I was ready to put on the final border, I wasn't happy with the effect I was getting from either of two fabrics that I could have used. Here is what I had.

I felt the top fabric (the large checker board) was too busy and the bottom fabric was too greyed out looking. So I went back to EQ and made a small change in design. I will show the completed top in my next post.

That's right, it's another quilt-a-thon weekend hosted by the lovely Judy L. over at Patchwork Times. :D And I am actually able to participate this weekend, as my hubby is off in pursuit of some fresh venison. I have a few projects in mind to work on, but first I have to take a quick trip to my local quilt shop. I spent last evening working on a couple layouts for some swap blocks that have been sitting around my sewing room far too long. Unfortunately, when I went through my stash, I didn't have enough of any fabric that would work with my intended design. So I am off for a quick purchase before I can proceed.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Ok, maybe not the sky, but have you seen the gas prices lately? They have dropped so much these past few weeks! I filled up tonight for $2.04/gallon. Wowee!! I sure hope prices stay down for a while. At the pump next to mine, a man had a trailer attatched to the back of his truck. The trailer had at least a dozen 5-gallon sized gas containers on it and he was filling them all up.

I have completed the quilting on the baby lonestar, but I seem to have misplaced the binding strips for it. So, I will have to run out tomorrow for some fabric before I meet with my quilting group. I should have a picture of the completed quilt before the end of the weekend. :D

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

For those of us who are citizens of the USA, today is election day. It is a privilege I take seriously. I voted around 10:30 this morning and was the 495th ballot cast in my precinct. The line took about thirty minutes to pass through; that is probably the longest line I have ever encountered to vote around here. I hope if you are a registered voter, that you too will cast your vote. That right is one of the things that makes the USA so great.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Not much, really. I am having a hard time believing it is already November. I have done very little quilting. Yesterday I did manage to make it to open sewing at a local quilt shop. And I am happy to say I finally completed this top.

I have also decided on how I will quilt the baby lonestar quilt, so hopeully I will manage to quilt it today. Dare I hope to get the binding on as well?

Today marks my 23rd wedding anniversary. Hubby and I went out yesterday to celebrate, and today he is out hunting. Do I feel slighted? Nah! In honor of the occasion, I have decided to share the most recent photo of the two of us. It was taken Friday night. It has been many years since we had dressed up for halloween but we were invited to a party, so we decided to have some fun with it.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

My first grandchild is expected in early December. Naturally I feel the need to make a baby quilt. Kyle and Crystal have chosen to decorate the baby's room with a classic Pooh theme, so I chose to use colors that will blend with that. The pattern choice was influenced by this quilt that I made for Kyle when he went away to college. Here is my progress so far.

I used the pattern Jelly Stars as the basis to make this quilt, and wow, did it ever go together nicely! I definitely reccomend it. My quilt uses only one star instead of four, and I changed the border to suit the fabric that I had to work with. It is strip pieced and there are no "Y" seams - super simple!

But I am stuck as to how I should quilt it. I am strictly a machine quilter so I need a design that will convert to continuous line quilting easily. I have never tried a feather design, and wouldn't know where to start to do it. Do any of you have any suggestions for me?

Oh, and this will be my next project when the baby quilt is done. So I will be having the same problem again as to how to quilt it.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Right here at home, that's where. I just haven't had much to tell you about . Sometimes life just takes you in a different direction, you know? It has been pretty slow on the quilting front around here. I had baby showers to attend for the past two weekends. I did make a quilt to give at one shower, but I did not have the presence of mind to take a photo of it. It was just one made with a pre-printed panel, so really, you didn't miss much.

I have finally finished the nine-patch quilt that has been seen so much on the blog. It will make it's way to it's new home tomorrow. I will be happy to see it go. The guilt for taking so long to finish was really getting to me. And I have soooooo many other things I want to work on, but couldn't until that nine-patch was done.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I am so happy to have my computer back already. My estimated return date was early November, so it went much quicker than anticipated. The weather has cooled down a bit here, so I am now starting to feel the urge to do some quilting. But Iam still trying to finish up the nine-patch I was working on in May. All that is left is the handstitching on the binding, but I hate that part. So I have been procrastinating. I am also trying to finish up a quilt for my first grand child. Sadly, I have no photos for you yet. But I should have some soon.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Hello friends. I'm sorry to be away for so long. My computer has been sent for repairs, and I don't know when I will have it back. So until I get it back, I will remain away. Hopefully I will have some new things to share by then.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

This weekend there were a couple of on-line quilt events in which I was interested in participating. Bonnie is hosting the old tobacco road mystery. And Judy has been posting some directions for an easy quilt she designed. Both quilts looked like a good way to put a dent in the scrap bin/stash. But, before hubby took off for a fishing weekend, he made me promise not to spend my time holed up inside if it was nice outside. And it has been absolutely gorgeous this weekend. So, I have been forced to abandon those plans, which is probably for the best anyways. I already have way too many UFOs .

Of course, I am still suffering from a terrible case of insomnia. I nap in the sun all afternoon, and am awake most of the night. Actually, I kinda feel like I have my days and nights mixed up. So I have spent my normal sleeping hours in my sewing room, quietly adding borders to more quilt tops.

This one is still waiting for more borders. I really want to add something similar to the border on the top pictured below. It was made by Caroll, who was my teacher while I worked on the applique blocks in the quilt top above. (I hope you don't mind me sharing your photo, Caroll.) I am not really sure how to proceed with this type of border, so it may take a while to finish. Especially in my sleepy state.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

It has been a pretty productive couple days for me. I have been helping my hubby load songs onto his computer so he can put them on an mp3 player that he received for Christmas in 2006. Yup, you read that right, 2006. It has been sitting around unused for a year and a half because while he wants to have the music on the mp3 player, he does not want to make the effort to put it there. So I am doing it for him...grudgingly.

Completed buck-a-block top

At least I have still had some time for myself and my sewing room. I have borders on two more tops now. One is the buck-a-block top from last year. The other is the strip quilt I am making with the 30's prints. I was hoping to cut the binding strips for these tops so I am all ready when the time is right.

Completed 30's strip top

But, I have already misplaced the fabric for the strip quilt and I have all but torn my sewing room apart trying to locate it. Sheesh. Maybe I will find my missing ipod sync cable in the process. So far though, I have found neither.

Friday, August 22, 2008

After long last, I am finally healed and feeling well enough to get back to my quilting. It feels sooooooo good to be playing with fabric again. The first order of the day should be to bind the nine-patch that I quilted earlier this year. But, am waiting for some cooler weather for that. So, for now I am finishing off some tops that have been sitting on my ufo pile. Specifically, I am adding borders to them.

The first up is Matt's star quilt top. I was not so gently reminded about that earlier this week. Matt's cousin was talking about a quilt that Grandma gave him because he is going off to college. And Matt replied that his mother had started a quilt for him a lonnnnnnnng time ago, but had appearantly forgotten about. Ummm, no, I did not forget, I hit a road block with some bleeding border fabric, and never got around to finding something to replace it with. Until now that is.The top is now complete and waiting for cool weather for quilting.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

This summer has not been very productive for me as far as quilting goes. I hope to get back into the swing of it soon, as I have so many tops needing quilting, as well as a stack of quilts I would like to begin. But, since I have not been quilting, I have had little to blog about either. That makes me sad.

So I will share with you today the truth about one of my unfinished quilts. It is a round robin top that I received back last year. I blogged about it here when it came home to me. I really liked the overall feel of the top when it arrived home. The colors are great and I love the variety of the different rounds. But, I found the top to be a bit unsettling. So, I put it aside, thinking that maybe I just needed to add a final round to it.

This is the top as it arrived home to me.

When I pulled it back out earlier this year, I knew instantly why I had never finished the quilt. The outer border was "off". It was not symetrical . I felt terrible about re-doing someone else's hard work but I just couldn't keep it as it was. So, the control freak in me won out. I pulled the border off and rearranged the blocks so that they made a border that flowed more to my liking.

But once I got it all stitched back together, something still wasn't right.

Yikes! How could it be? Had I not put it back together right? I stared at it for a while then walked away. When I returned to the top, once again the answer was obvious. There was another round of blocks that was not behaving as I would like it to. I just hadn't noticed earlier because of the outer border issue.

Once again I struggled with the concept of re-doing someone else work. After all, isn't that the whole idea of a round robin- to have contributions from other quilters? But, I caved to the inner control freak (don't tell my husband; he thinks he's the control freak of the family ;) ). I ripped out the offending blocks and rearranged them to my liking before putting it all back together again. Sigh. At any rate, here is the after picture of the top.

I hope I haven't offended those lovely ladies who worked on my round robin. I imagine that I probably have. So, I do apologize for that. But, the truth is, I would never finish this quilt if I hadn't made the changes. And that would have been the bigger offense.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Friday I had another growth removed from my armpit. This one was under the other arm from the first one. So once again, I am forced to take it easy while my incision heals. This one is slightly smaller than the last one, so I hope it heals more quickly.

I can't tell you how easily bored I become. I think tomorrow I will need to take a trip to my local library so I can get something to read. This weekend I decided would attempt a little sewing. So I took the charm packet I bought on vacation and got busy. I found a template for a 4" finished size drunkards path block down in my sewing room. And to my delight, the charm pack I bought was just the right size to cut one each of the wedge and the arc pieces. I got 40 blocks made in no time at all, and there was almost no waste fabric! This is what I have so far.

There are four more blocks left. I intend to use them as cornerstones on a border. But first I will need to try to find some of this fabric line locally, so I can add the border and binding. I really like this fabric line- especially the polka dots. When this is done, it will reside on my kitchen table.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Every once in a while, I have a night where I just can't sleep. Last night was one of those nights. But, since I knew that Judy was having another quilt-a-thon today, I decided to put my sleepless night to good use. I fianlly got the last of the borders on my nine-patch quilt.

And thanks to Borders Made easy, I even have the border quilted.

I just love these border papers. It is sooooooooo much easier than marking them by hand. Now all I need to do is pick off the paper and add some binding and a label.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Holy cow! I have been such a bad blogger lately. I have recently returned from a family camping trip in beautiful northern Michigan. And while I did remember to pack a bit of quilting, I never actually managed to pull it out over the course of my vacation. Instead I spent my time enjoying the company of my family as well as the great outdoors. And I took a couple side trips to the local quilt shops. But all I bought was a charm pack of fabrics and a binding tool.I hope to get back to the quilting soon, but tomorrow I have the second round of lumpy underarm removed. So I will probably not be able to do much again for the next few weeks. At least the incision from the first round has healed nicely and is no longer painful.In other news, I need to start planning a baby quilt soon, as my son has informed me that I will be a grandma before the year's end. Holy crap, that makes me feel old.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I am sad to admit that I still have not finished the nine patch quilt. I do have the inner borders attatched, and the outer borders are cut and ready to add. Here is a detail picture of the first border being added.

I am at a standstill on this quilt at this point. Last week I had a growth removed from my armpit, and I have quite a large incision that needs to heal. I don't want to risk popping any of the 21 stitches I have trying to manuver a heavy quilt through my machine. So it is back to piecing for me for now.

My current project is last month's strip club quilt. I managed to finally complete all of the blocks for it today. I laid them out on my bed this evening. This is what I have so far.

Sorry it isn't a better shot. I am still deciding what to use for the sashes and cornerstones. I have it narrowed down to a few fabrics. Next strip club is this week but I haven't decided if I'm going yet. Maybe if my incision isn't too sore by Friday.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

My talented sister-in-law made my daughter and her new hubby a quilt for a wedding gift. I filmed them as they opened the gift, and have decided to share the video clip with you. Judy, the quilt is absolutely beautiful!http://picasaweb.google.com/jabissell/Videos

I think I am finally getting over the exhaustion from all of the wedding related activity. I hope to add the final borders onto the quilt I have been working on within the next couple of days. I would love to have that done so I can move on to other projects.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

I know that I have not been offering much for you wonderful readers lately. I have had a lot of family distractions that have been consuming massive amounts of my time. The most significant of which is my daughter's wedding, which is on Saturday. She is in spaz mode these past few days, and I am trying to help keep her together and sane. My sanity, however, is definitely in danger. Eh, sanity is over rated anyways.

I have been sneaking in bits of quilting time whenever I can, but my progress is slow. Still, I am making headway on my nine-patch quilt. (The one that my last couple posts have been about. )I have decided I will share with you my experience with the quilting in sections method- the good, the bad, the ugly, and the darned near impossible. I am definitely learning as I go on this quilt.

This is one half of the quilt after it had been quilted.Notice that there are no borders attached at this point.The brown strip of fabric is just a preview of a border at this point.

This shows a close-up of the quilting.

When I layered this for quilting, I left extra backing fabric/batting space on three sides of each section of the quilt to accommodate the borders. Where the two sections would meet together, I left maybe a couple inches on each side. I trimmed one seam edge of the backing fabric down to 1.5 inches, and pressed the edge under. This will be a little fabric flap to cover the join on the back of the quilt.

On the second section, I trimmed the backing fabric down to extend past the quilt top around 3/4 of an inch. I also trimmed the batting down even with the center seam edge of the quilt top.Then I joined the two sections together along the center seam. Here is a view of the back of the quilt, with the fabric flap that covers the seam.I used a fusible tape to hold the flap in place while I finish with the borders. I will hand stitch the flap down later.

Now the main body of the quilt is all one piece, quilted and ready for borders. Notice all of the extra batting and backing fabric around the edges. I plan stitch the borders onto the quilt next and then quilt them. I hope that goes as well as the rest of this has so far.

I loved being able to quilt two smaller and very manageable sections of the quilt. And I am happy that I will have fewer threads to bury, because most will be hidden once I add the borders. :)

Not everything has gone as planned with this process. There has been plenty of opportunity for learning so far. I miscalculated how large I needed the backing fabric on one half of the quilt, and now I will need to rethink my borders once again. Bummer. And I did not take into account the seam allowances when I stitched my quilting lines. This caused the diagonal quilting lines to skip at the joining seam.

See how nicely my seams line up? And see how the quilting through the nine-patches at the seam don't? Oh well, I am sure they are going to be off where they meet the borders too. But look how smart I'm getting! ;)

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I decided to forge ahead with the nine-patch quilt today. Ultimately, I chose to layer each half of the quilt without borders. My logic is that I can always add the borders on to each half later if I should decide it might work out better. But, once I cut my long border strips in half, I am stuck with pieced borders.Quilting will have to wait for another day, but I am sandwhiched and ready to go! :)

This weekend is another quilt-a-thon hosted by Judy L and I am trying to get a little something accomplished. So far, I have my blocks stitched together from the quilt I have been blogging about for the last couple posts. I think I am going to try to quilt it in two pieces and then join the pieces together, because I don't have my Handi-quilter frame set up right now. (My tables for the frame are in use by others right now.) This is what it looks like at this point.

The border is not attached, just pinned on the design wall for effect. I can't decide if I want to add the narrow inner border or not. Right now it is missing mostly because my design wall is not large enough to accommodate another border. But I'm not sure it is really needed anyways.

But my real dilemma is this- I don't know if I should quilt the two halves before adding the borders or if I should add the borders to each half and quilt them before joining the two halves of the quilt together. If I add them first, they will have a seam through them. If I add them last they won't, but I will need to manipulate the entire quilt through my sewing machine to do the borders. Does anyone have any experience with quilting in pieces? I would love some helpful tips from someone who has done this before.

Edit: I just noticed that I have a mistake in my quilt top. Do you see it? One of my alternate blocks is turned the wrong direction. Oops! Funny, but I didn't notice it before. I guess I will need to make a little adjustment. I sure am glad I found it before I started quilting.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

After giving it some thought, I went back and played a little more with my nine-patch designs some more. I thought maybe it would look better if I swapped out the placement of the rows. Here is the way I last posted this quilt design.

And this is after I switched it around. This way makes the light blue grid look complete. Which is better?

Sunday, April 27, 2008

My computer has been acting up for the last several weeks. I am so frustrated I often feel like throwing it againt the wall. Sometimes it will start up and run fine. But more often than not, it will decide not to run some of my programs. This includes (but is not limited to) my browsers and e-mail programs, effectively cutting me off from my favorite computer activites. Sigh.

I have been trying to resolve this problem, but so far without success. The good news is, my computer wiz son will be coming home from college for the summer in a week. I am hopeful that he will be able to figure out what is wrong. My fear is that I will need to completely reinstall everything. I have been frantically searching for installation cd's for all of my programs just in case. A couple vital ones seem to have disappeared including my anti-virus program and Microsoft Office. Have I mentioned how frustrated I am? Hurry home, Kyle. I need your help!

I haven't had time to do much quilting lately. Friday was strip club again at my local quilt shop. I spent the time putting the blocks together from last month's quilt. I just can't decide if I want to add borders to it or leave it as is. No new picture, as it looks pretty much like it did here, just sewn together.

I have been playing a little bit with my EQ software, since it will still usually load up. I have a bunch of nine patch blocks that I want to put into a quilt. The blocks are all different colors-very scrappy. I will share a few of the settings I have played with since I have no other nice quilty pics to share.

This one is just a grid like design. I like how the blocks are sort of framed in or linked togther.

This is the same layout with a different look. With this one, I just played with the color placement of the alternate blocks to create the diagonal stripes.

And with this one I went in a totally different direction. I grouped the nine patched differently and changed the alternate block. I don't know which one I like best.